1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a portable ink jet recording apparatus of mobile type.
2. Related Background Art
In recent years, compactness and weight reduction of computers have been progressed and a chance for carrying a computer and using the computer outdoors or in a visiting place has been increased. Consequently, the demand in which a document or an image formed by the computer is outputted outdoors or in the visit plate has been produced, and, to this end, portable and compact recording apparatuses of mobile type have been proposed. Further, recently, so-called digital cameras in which image data is stored or recorded in a memory have been progressed and recording apparatuses in which data is directly sent from a digital camera to the recording apparatus from which an image is outputted have been developed. Among such recording apparatuses of mobile type, there are a recording apparatus in which, in addition to the information, an electric power required for the recording of the recording apparatus is supplied from a sender such as a note PC or a digital camera for sending the information such as the image to be outputted from the recording apparatus, and a recording apparatus designed to be driven by electric power supplying means such as a re-chargeable secondary cell or primary cell, which can be used outdoors having no AC power supply.
However, since the above-mentioned recording apparatus to which the electric power is supplied from outside of the recording apparatus utilizes a power supply of equipment at an electric power supplying side, the equipment at the electric power supplying side is subjected to a burden. That is to say, there arises a problem that a running time is shortened because the equipment supplies the electric power to the recording apparatus. To cope with this, it is considered that an additional secondary cell which was charged or an additional primary cell is prepared or an AC adaptor is prepared. In this case, however, there arises a problem that the portability becomes worse since the number of parts to be carried is increased and a weight to be carried is increased. This problem similarly occurs in a recording apparatus to which a cell is mounted. Further, in the recording apparatus, load fluctuation occurs in dependence upon a usage condition. Namely, although an ink jet recording apparatus having a plurality of discharge ports for discharging ink toward a recording material is frequently used as a portable recording apparatus of mobile type preferably in the viewpoint of low power consumption, nevertheless, when the ink is discharged from all of the discharge ports of the ink jet recording head, large electric current is required instantaneously. To cope with such large electric current, since a power supply having capacity corresponding to a maximum value of the electric current is required, a power supply circuit becomes larger, with the result that the entire apparatus becomes larger and cost is increased. This problem becomes more severe in a small apparatus used for a portable purpose and, if the power supply is constituted by a cell, load on the cell (battery) is increased in order to cope with the load fluctuation of the power supply by means of the cell, with the result that the service life of the cell, i.e. the usable time of the entire apparatus is decreased.
On the other hand, there has been proposed a technique in which a fuel cell is used as the cell used in the portable mobile equipment. In this fuel cell, hydrogen generated from fuel such as methanol is reacted with oxygen to generate electricity and water. Such a fuel cell has recently been watched as clean energy which does not contaminate environment. However, the cell becomes larger in order to permit the supplying the instantaneous large electric current, and much fuel must be loaded in order to increase the capacity of the cell and, since this leads to the bulkiness of the apparatus, the fuel cell is not so superior to the secondary cell.
As mentioned above, the user using the mobile type recording apparatus must always pay attention to the electric power to maintain the electric power required for the recording, and, nowadays, an environment for obtaining a desired image at a desired time is not arranged.